Discipleship Encouragement and Correction, Doctrinal Teachings
The Gospel: Actors and Audience All
Sometimes we just have to go with what was written in the Scriptures as they were written. In this case, Peter said to Aeneas to rise and he arose immediately. We don’t know from the passage whether Aeneas was one of the saint…s who lived in Lydda before Peter traveled there. He might have been. Still, there was no mention that Peter asked Aeneas if he believed in the Lord Jesus, or if he thought Peter was so empowered to heal him. In Matthew 9:29, we learn that Jesus asked the blind man if he believed Jesus had the ability to heal before healing him, but that wasn’t known here. No, in the case of Aeneas, he took what Peter said, and pardon the pun, he ran with it. However, again, I don’t know whether Aeneas believed in Christ before Peter hit town or if he came to know Christ later. What we do know was that he was made ‘whole,’ which I take to mean ‘complete’ in Christ Jesus: body, mind, soul and spirit. Nonetheless….
Yesterday, I heard a testimony of Jonas; a dear pastor from Burkina Faso in West Africa. He was born a Muslim. His mother was second wife of his father and had been ill for years. One day she was invited by a missionary to go to a Christian church for healing in a distant town. As moderate Muslims, her husband permitted her to go. He loved her, and if she could find healing, he wanted it for her. So, she went and the pastor of the distant church; in the fullness of God’s grace, spoke to her as Peter spoke to Aeneas and she was healed. However, according to Jonas, it was not until months later that the pastor approached his mother and told her it was time to repent and to give her life to Jesus. She did, and as a result, her two sons and husband ultimately were led to Christ. Maybe it’s just me, but I was struck by the order of events that affected Jonas’ mother as I was with Aeneas. Healed first, later saved: that’s generally not the order I’m used to observing, or maybe it’s the standard brand of America. It’s come to Jesus, then… well, you know the routine.
The point is though there was evidence of belief in these testimonies. Aeneas rose; Jonas’ mother walked ten miles. In the Old Testament, Abram moved his family as God directed from Chaldea to a strange land; Rahab hid the Jericho spies. All were demonstrations of belief and imputed by God as righteousness, which I call man’s salvation baseline: We must believe in our hearts and act. Words, unless from God, are meaningless. Who among us has kept each and every word scripted? None.
As for the order of events, does it matter whether I pray before a meal, during or after? Is it not to my God eternal that I pray? Did He not foreknow and answer my prayers already from that place; long before the foundation of the world was laid? Does not my Lord go before me, and I follow, and yet He lived and died before my time? While I was yet a sinner, He died for me? How could it be that King David said of Messiah Jesus, ‘My Lord said unto My Lord?’ How could Jesus descend from David and yet be his Lord? As I wrote yesterday on Isaiah 46, God declared and wrote the script from end to beginning, and if we are but actors and audience on this worldly stage, then our belief and trust in Him will guide us in His blocking. We too as the blind will see the play, and as the lame walk the pilgrimage as He instructs us in our seating, entrances, and final exit. As I see it, sinners too are very much a part of God’s heavenly script. How do I know? For at the end, every knee in the audience shall bow and tongue confess, and applause given in the most majestic play written; entitled The Gospel.
Oh, how I pray that each of you who read this will join me on God’s stage.
